Horse Spring to Hikertown

We woke up to overcast skies at about 6:30 am and knew we had a short day of only 9 miles today. After rolling over and going back for a snooze it was suddenly 10 am so time to get up and hit the trail.

Our camp spot was at 5200 ft so we had a long elevation loss, gain and loss again to get down to the desert floor and our next stopping point. It was cold to start, but we were in the heat of the day n sun once we were down about 2500 ft. We were lucky that there was a cool breeze that really helped us make good time today. We had also eaten our pack weight down over the previous 5 days so we were hiking light and fast. As we hit the backside foothills of the mountain we also reappeared into a mass of desert flowers.
We crisscrossed with Larry again who helped us out by sharing his water cache with us. By about 2 pm we cruised into Hikertown Hostel. It’s an odd little place but with a happy, generous host who showed us around, had 2 cold beers ready for us and some fresh made BBQ ribs. Showered, laundered and fed, we waited for 4 others in our second little Trail Family to get in. RocDoc and Larry arrived about the same time after a few hours and GalPal and WoodRat later. They had just come from the ER and learned that WoodRat had, indeed, fractured a bone in her foot and would need to see an Orthopedic Doc today. Wishing her well and a speedy recovery. Sad to know that it will take her and GalPal off the trail. We climbed into our nice Hostel “Honeymoon Suite” and were out cold eager to start the next day of our adventure to Seattle.